How to Advertise Toys
There has never been an easier time to bring a toy to market. Toy advertising online gives you an unprecedented advantaged. Creating content is as simple as point-and-shoot.Building an e-commerce store for your toy or product can be done with a drag and a click. Marketing materials and graphics don’t require expensive designers anymore! Online tools and resources make advertising toys a breeze.
Toy Industry Sales Data
According to the Toy Industry Association, in 2016 US toy sales reached over $20 billion. That is a 5% increase from 2015 and it is only expected to grow. The data they collected came from the NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service. NPD service represents 80 percent of the US retail market for toys.
New Rules of Toy Advertising
There is said to be two different “rules” in toy advertising. You have the old rules, and the new rules.Old Rules of Toy Advertising: Toy catalogs, TV commercials, and in-store displaysNew Rules of Toy Advertising: Blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, InfluencersThis article will only be covering the New Rules of Advertising.To succeed in today’s market, you need to change the way you think about advertising. In order to be an innovative brand, you need a solid content marketing strategy. A content marketing strategy means you are publishing content across all of your digital marketing channels. Educate your potential customers on how your toy works or the cool things you can do with it. Turn your customers into brand advocates who want to constantly talk and promote your products.Think of customers as community influencers. Many of your customers will have social media accounts with hundreds or even thousands of friends. If they simply take a picture or talk about your product on their channels, you are more likely to attract new customers.Friends trust friends.
Content Marketing for Toys
Below are a list of tools that can greatly improve your content creation for little to no money.Create stunning graphics using Canva.Start posting to your own blog in seconds using WordPress.Email marketing using MailChimp.Sign up for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pintrest, and Twitter.Use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule all your posts at once.Setup a Facebook and Instagram Business Account.Creating content should never be a hard thing to do. Create as much content as you can each time, and spread it out across your marketing channels over a period of time.
Toy Buyer’s Journey and Content
Content marketing is really just an inbound sales strategy. The more content you create and publish, the more people will hear about you. This will generate new leads and sales.Make sure you know who you are selling to! We cannot stress that enough. Do not start marketing your toy with out knowing the buyer persona.Depending on the toy marketing strategies you are using, paid or organic results can show as soon as one day, but could take up to six months.It can take a potential customer up to 7-12 encounters before they actually purchase.There are three stages to the toy buyer’s journey. Awareness, Consideration, and Decision.Awareness: This is the top of the sales funnel. During the awareness phase, you are showing your potential customer a sales video or an article talking about your toy. Get them interested in what you have to offer.Consideration: Your customer might not know that they want your toy yet. What pain points does your toy help to relieve? How can your toy relate to their emotions? Try and get something in return from your customer. It can be an email address, phone number, or anything else that help you connect down the road.Decision: By the time the buyer reaches this part of the journey, they should be ready to purchase.Every piece of content you write about your product should fit one of the three categories above. Make sure you are building a relationship or building trust with your customer.
Promote Your Toy Online
Promoting your toy online and selling it through different marketplaces is extremely easy.We recommend selling on your own channels as well as through other marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, or Walmart. You will quickly learn that 3rd party marketplaces eat into your margins.
Shopify
Using a service like Shopify is a quick and inexpensive way to sell your toy online. After signing up for a Shopify account, you will be taken to a page full of templates, both paid and free. They have an easy-to-use site builder that will get you up-and-running in no time.
Paid Advertising
Google Adwords and Facebook Advertising are the two most popular platforms for paid advertising. Google is the largest search engine in the world and Facebook is the largest social media platform, with over 2 billion users.Google Adwords is used for intent-based advertising.Facebook Advertising is used for interest-based advertising.In other words, when people are searching for products on Google, or while on Facebook, they will be scrolling down their news feed and your product will appear.
Conclusion
Toy marketing strategies in the Digital Age allows you to test, validate, and sell your toy without expensive startup costs. Using the tools provided in this article, you should now be equipped with all the marketing tools you need to start. Remember the importance of the buyer persona and the buyer’s journey. After all the pieces of the puzzle are together, it will be a functional marketing masterpiece!
